In the market of polymers for tribological applications polyetheretherketone (PEEK) are often used for satisfying requests coming from industry regarding enhanced properties such as, thermal stability, friction and wear resistance. These properties promote the material to be used in so called high performance tribological applications. However, fundamental mechanisms governing friction and wear are not yet fully understood and neither is the influence of composition parameters. An important parameter is PEEK’s viscosity during manufacturing process which is heated up to semi-solid state, between its glass transition and melting temperature. This paper studies the friction and wear performance of low and high viscosity PEEK and pure PEEK under dry reciprocating sliding contact. The tests were performed in large scale specimens under flat-on-flat configuration to determine the transitions in tribological behaviour at different contact pressures. Tests were carried out at controlled atmosphere with 25 °C and a relative humidity of 50%. Contact pressures parameters were 4, 8 and 10 MPa used at a sliding speed of 20 mm/s. Post mortem analyses were carried out by means of 2-D surface topography and optical microscopy. The results show that the pure PEEK exhibits low coefficient of friction and wear rate when the contact pressure increase and similar behave for high and low viscosity PEEK.

@inproceedings{6871218,
abstract = {In the market of polymers for tribological applications polyetheretherketone (PEEK) are often used for satisfying requests coming from industry regarding enhanced properties such as, thermal stability, friction and wear resistance. These properties promote the material to be used in so called high performance tribological applications. However, fundamental mechanisms governing friction and wear are not yet fully understood and neither is the influence of composition parameters. An important parameter is PEEK{\textquoteright}s viscosity during manufacturing process which is heated up to semi-solid state, between its glass transition and melting temperature. This paper studies the friction and wear performance of low and high viscosity PEEK and pure PEEK under dry reciprocating sliding contact. The tests were performed in large scale specimens under flat-on-flat configuration to determine the transitions in tribological behaviour at different contact pressures. Tests were carried out at controlled atmosphere with 25 {\textdegree}C and a relative humidity of 50\%. Contact pressures parameters were 4, 8 and 10 MPa used at a sliding speed of 20 mm/s. Post mortem analyses were carried out by means of 2-D surface topography and optical microscopy. The results show that the pure PEEK exhibits low coefficient of friction and wear rate when the contact pressure increase and similar behave for high and low viscosity PEEK.},
author = {Rodriguez Fereira, Vanessa and Sukumaran, Jacob and Perez Delgado, Yeczain and De Baets, Patrick and And{\'o}, M{\'a}ty{\'a}s},
booktitle = {5th International Conference on Sustainable Construction and Design, Proceedings},
editor = {Hertel{\'e}, Stijn and Van Wittenberghe, Jeroen},
issn = {2032-7471},
keyword = {injection moulding,polyetheretherketone PEEK,viscosity,medium-scale test,friction and wear.},
language = {eng},
location = {Ghent, Belgium},
number = {2},
pages = {10},
publisher = {Laboratory Soete, Ghent University},
title = {Tribological behaviour of the low and high viscosity peek against steel using different contact pressures},
volume = {4},
year = {2013},
}